Introduction
According to the UNESCO Paris OER Declaration of 2012, open educational resources are: materials used for teaching, learning and research, available in any medium – both digital and otherwise – that are either in the public domain or released under open licences, allowing free access, use, adaptation and redistribution of the material without restriction. Open licences are based on the existing definition of intellectual property as defined in relevant international conventions; they recognise the author of the resource…
Books
· Open Textbooks AGH – open, free academic e-textbooks
· OpenStax Open Textbooks – globally recognised academic textbooks created by leading authors
· Intech Textbooks – a leading publisher of fully open access textbooks
· Open Access Books – the largest open access e-book search engine in the world
· Wolne Lektury (Free Readings) – free Polish school reading materials available for download
· OpenEdition – a French platform providing access to academic books and journals in various languages
· Open Textbook Library – free academic books and textbooks for students and beyond
· TU Delft Open Textbook Library – the open textbook library of Delft University of Technology; also allows authors to publish their own open access books
· Ryerson University Guide – information on STEM and social sciences textbooks available under Creative Commons licences
· Rebus Community Press – access to humanities and economics books and textbooks under CC BY 4.0; also allows open access publication
· Biblioteka Nauki (Science Library) – open access to full texts of articles in Polish scholarly journals and selected scientific books, including metadata
Audio Materials, Audiobooks, etc.
· Vimeo – high-quality video creation and publication
· Musopen – music recordings, scores and other music-related materials for free use
· CC Mixter – free music and sound samples with mixing tools
· LibriVox – free audiobooks in many languages, and the option to record your own
· Open Music Archive – music recordings from the early 19th century to the present
· Free Music Archive – free music and sounds for unrestricted use
· Jamendo Music – copyright-free music for commercial use
Photos and Graphics
· Pexels – the world’s first inclusive free stock photo and video library
· Pickup Image – the largest free photo library with a built-in editor
· Pixnio – free images for any use
· Pixabay – over 2.1 million photos and videos shared by a global community
· Pixlr X – photo editor and template creator
· Morguefile – one of the earliest free photo collections (est. 1996)
· Public Domain Pictures – images in the public domain
· Flickr – free photo storage and presentation tools
· Unsplash – free images suitable for websites and other uses
· Can We Image – image search engine built on Wikimedia Commons
Other Resources
· Open Resources Portal – global directory of open resources and creation tools
· Open Culture – curated educational materials; includes an open illustration tool by Pablo Stanley
· dariahTeach Project – teaching materials for humanities and arts
· Easelly – infographic creation software
· Canva – graphic design and infographic creation
· Icograms – creation of 3D iconographics
· Thingiverse – free 3D printable models
· PhET Colorado – interactive educational simulations (Java environment)
· The Public Domain Review – exploration of interesting works in science, art and literature
· OpenStreetMap – open and freely usable maps
· TED Talks – open lectures on new ideas
· OER World Map – global map and information about OER initiatives
· Wikipedia – the largest open, volunteer-written encyclopedia
· Navoica – free courses prepared by Polish universities and institutions